Though Stanley Kubrick passed away in 1999, movies bearing his name are still working their way to the big screen. Marc Forster, who directed Paramount’s tentpole World War Z, has become attached to direct and produce a movie based on the 2001: A Space Odyssey auteur’s 1956 screenplay The Downslope.
The pic will be the first in a planned trilogy based on the script (Forster won’t direct the latter two installments, but he will produce all entries alongside Lauren Selig, Barry Levine, Reneé Wolfe, Phil Hobbs and Steve Lannning).
The Downslope was written in between Fear and Desire and Paths of Glory. Also a cautionary, anti-war tale, it centers on some key battles in the Civil War fought between Union General George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby. The latter was so renowned for his stealth and cunning that he was nicknamed the Gray Ghost, leading a much smaller force of cavalrymen in brilliantly plotted raids against Union forces that eventually earned him the title of Custer’s archnemesis.
Though the first film will tell that war-heavy story, the rest of the trilogy will expand on the script to address the myriad issues Americans faced while settling in the new frontier.
Said Forster of the project:
“I am indebted to Stanley Kubrick and his visionary films. It is an honor and a huge responsibility to take on this project, and we’re thankful to his family for their support. This is a powerful work, an epic story, with its psychological landscape of brother pitted against brother, and friend against friend. We believe it will be an incredibly interesting trilogy, and a great experience sharing our mutual passion of Kubrick’s vision.”
Relievingly, Kubrick’s family is supporting the project, which isn’t always the case for posthumous works related to big Hollywood names.
Forster will launch into The Downslope once he’s put finishing touches on a much smaller-scale project – Blake Lively thriller All I See Is You, about a blind woman who regains her sight and realizes some disturbing truths about her life and marriage.
